E.R. assault case bound to circuit court

A Midlander charged with multiple crimes in connection with an
assault that occurred at the MidMichigan Medical Center Emergency
Room in August has been bound over to the circuit court.

Michael Thomas Gould, 27, first was charged with felonious
assault, assaulting, resisting and obstructing police causing
injury and malicious destruction of personal property, as well as a
second habitual offender notice. The charges were altered by
Midland County District Court Judge John H. Hart after a Sept. 16
preliminary hearing. Hart added two counts of assaulting, resisting
and obstructing police, plus assault with the intent to cause great
bodily harm, and dropped the assaulting police causing injury
charge.

The incident occurred just before 10 p.m. on Aug. 12 when the
suspect arrived at the hospital for treatment of burns he suffered
when trying to light a fire using gasoline. The suspect went past
the triage area and another desk, trying to enter directly into the
emergency room.

When a nurse at the desk asked him if he needed help, he picked
up a keyboard and used it to strike her in the head multiple times,
the report states.

The man then struck a police officer who had arrived, who in
turn used a Taser on the man to gain control of the situation. The
man was restrained and treated for his wounds.

Hart recently increased the $250,000 cash or surety bond to a
$500,000. The bond was increased even though Gould's attorney, Rick
Lee of Midland, filed a motion seeking to reduce the bond. In that
motion, Lee stated his client was suffering from severe burns to
his body and that nurses have told Gould's wife that the
defendant's actions "were due to the immense amount of pain he was
in."

Gould previously was convicted of second-degree home invasion in
2005 in the Midland County Circuit Court.